


innocence in spite of me

by Nito



Series: My emotional support Naruto AU plz don’t read unless u want to I guess [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F, Ino is so pretty tho she cant help it, Sakura is Confused and Also Repressing, aka Sakura's Lesbian Journey, also Itachi and Kisame are like married and happy and everythings Fine jsyk, let Sakura be dirty and rowdy 2k20
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:48:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26247439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nito/pseuds/Nito
Summary: It's time for Sakura to find her way in the big scary ninja world. She gets a cool haircut, discovers some new things about herself, and picks up a couple role models along the way. this is a part of @2old4dis and I's Naruto AU where everything is mostly fine. But this stands on its own!
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Hoshigaki Kisame/Uchiha Itachi, eventual InoSaku
Series: My emotional support Naruto AU plz don’t read unless u want to I guess [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1905244
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	innocence in spite of me

Sakura clenched the loose dirt on the forest floor in an attempt to will away her surroundings. Naruto was on her left, feverish and bruised after an encounter with the Sound ninja, and Sasuke laid on her right, chakra exhausted from his Sharingan. She held her kunai just like Kakashi taught her, hair falling out in strands like leaves.

 _"I'm going to need a haircut,"_ she thinks. _"But first we have to get out of here."_ She wasn't afraid. The time for that was long gone, extinguished after Zabuza almost ran through her with his sword, after she held Sasuke in her arms and felt nothing but icy hot rage in her gut.

She was a kunoichi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, who would rage and sacrifice her life for her friends.

 _'But that's all they are, aren't they?'_ Inner Sakura crooned. _'Friends. You don't love them. Not like that, anyway.'_

Sakura outwardly rolled her eyes. Now was not the time for an identity crisis. She was alone in the Forest of Death and needed a strategy, not a complex.

Sasuke groaned, breaking Sakura out of her reverie. His eyes were unfocused for a moment, before he sat up, blinking owlishly at Sakura.

"Don't point your kunai at me," he muttered. "'S dangerous."

"Oh! Right! I'm... glad you're awake, Sasuke."

"Yeah. Naruto?"

Sakura huffed. "Still unconscious. I think he has a concussion. But you got the scroll from the Sound ninja, right?" Sasuke smirked, pulling the scroll out of his weapons pack.

At least they were still going to pass.

\--

Her hair was a mess. Not that Sakura had any particular attachment to it (no pun intended), anymore. Sasuke liked girls with long hair, right? But being around the Uchiha made her notice that he rarely paid attention to any girl, not just her. Did she like her long hair? For a kunoichi, short hair was more practical, easier to take care of, and less likely to get pulled on in battle. She just hadn't had time to fix it since the chuunin exams since the village had been so busy. The clippers in her hand made a satisfying hum as it ran through her hair, shearing off the remaining locks and leaving Sakura with a freshly shorn buzzcut.

 _'We look BADASS’_ _Inner_ Sakura practically yelled in her head, completely with several fist pumps. Sakura did a fist pump in the mirror. 

Her reflection smiled back at her. Tying her headband around her forehead-

shit

Her forehead.

It actually didn't look that bad. If it were possible to grow into one's forehead, Sakura certainly did. She ran her fingers across her scalp, relishing in the lack of resistance. On the way to Team Seven's reserved training grounds however, her thoughts shifted. What would Sasuke think? Naruto's going to say something rude, and Kakashi won't say anything! And what if she sees Ino on her way-

Sakura physically shook her head, sending the thoughts away. She was early for training, as usual, so she did some stretches, which usually cleared her mind. Except it didn't, because her mind kept circling back to Ino, and her waist-length hair, and how now it was probably so soft compared to hers.

She was just missing her long hair, that was all.

It was daybreak by the time Sasuke appeared, silently joining her in some practice kata, sparing no more than a quizzical twitch of his eyebrow. Sometimes she thought that the Uchiha had a silent language of their own.

Naruto showed up not too much later, still shoving a homemade onigiri down his throat and nearly choked when he made eye contact with Sakura.

“Sakura-chan! I thought you were a dude! Can I touch it?” Silence. Sasuke pretended to be deaf, nothing betraying that he was even listening besides the curve of his mouth into a smile. Jerk.

“Uhh… My hair?” Suddenly self-conscious, with no strands of hair to worry, Sakura felt _seen._

“Yeah! My cousin shaved half her head once and it feels really cool, dontcha think?”

“Um, okay. Go ahead?” Naruto barely waited for her approval before he was right next to her, experimentally touching the top of her head, before vigorously rubbing her scalp like it was a magic lamp.

“Naruto! What the hell!” Sakura yelled, but was overpowered by Naruto’s cackling. The boy stopped, nearly doubled over, and feigned wiping a tear from his eye.

“Sorry, Sakura-chan. I thought it would be funny to give you a noogie. And it was!” Sasuke let out a choked laugh as he saw Sakura’s face go from confused to annoyed.

Her teammates were mostly unfazed by her change in appearance. It felt… good? Like everything had changed, but nothing at all.

Two hours later, Kakashi finally showed up to the training grounds, a bemused – perhaps fatherly? – crinkle in his eye. Or was Sakura just projecting, now? She blinked. Then Kakashi was running them through some new taijutsu techniques, and Sakura was too tired to think anymore.

It was half past noon by the time they were done, past sweaty and grimy, no more than three tween sized lumps of aching muscle and exhaustion.

Somehow, they found the strength to drag themselves away from the training grounds, to Sasuke’s brother’s house, because it was closest.

Kisame didn’t seem surprised when the genin stumbled into his kitchen, looking like Kakashi had yet again overexerted them. Luckily, he always had snacks prepared – whether they were for Itachi and his genin team, or Sasuke and his friends. One day Kisame was going to discuss the dangers of metabolic instability with Kakashi, but that was for another day. It was a wonder no one had actually passed out yet, but surprisingly, Team Seven was made up of chakra powerhouses who had very few limitations.

But watching them try to eat a granola bar with as little movement as possible _was_ hilarious.

Sakura said her goodbyes who her teammates, who grunted in reply, and made her way back home. It meant going through the marketplace, picking up a few ingredients for dinner, and definitely not walking by the Yamanaka flower shop.

Sakura stood in front of the Yamanaka flower shop. Why was she even here? She had no one to buy flowers for. Inner Sakura rolled her eyes. The store was empty as it was the middle of a weekday, and she could see Ino hunched over the register, typing away on her phone. Just as Sakura moved to leave, Ino looked right up at her. It was hard to interpret the emotions crossing over her face before she broke into a grin and left the counter, jogging lightly to the front door of the shop.

“Sakura! Your hair! It looks amazing!” Ino stopped, leaning in the doorway. Sakura felt her face start to burn – embarrassment? She let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and let herself smile back.

“Thanks, Ino. I did it myself.”

Ino gasped, holding her hand to her forehead melodramatically. “I would have done it if you’d asked, dummy! Look, you have a cowlick,” Ino said, flicking a piece of hair behind her ear. Sakura wondered if it was possible to spontaneously combust.

“Oh... thanks,” Sakura said intelligently.

“Anytime! I have to get back to work since dad’s watching the clock and he gets annoyed if I’m not there to greet customers. But you should come by again!” Ino flung her ponytail behind her shoulder. “It gets so boring during the day.”

Sakura nodded, pretending she understood the intricacies of the flower selling market.

“Okay, yeah, I will,” Sakura said. She hurried off before Ino could say anything else, lest she die on the spot.

Once home with her groceries put away, Sakura’s shoulders relaxed. Home safe. She tried to zone out while making dinner for mom and dad, but her thoughts kept trailing back to Ino, and her laugh.

She didn’t tease her once! They had patched things up after the chuunin exams of course, but they also never really talked about it. Which was okay. With all her training, and trying to get accepted into Tsunade’s internship program, she already had a lot on her plate. Thinking about her feelings was going to have to take a backseat, for now.

\--

Sakura’s feelings did not take a backseat. In fact, thoughts of Ino tended to consume her day, and more than once Naruto kicked her in the jaw during training. She briefly entertained the idea that it was some kind of genjutsu, but she didn’t know for certain.

Team Seven was having their post-training snack at Kisame and Itachi’s house. Both Itachi and Kisame were there as they both happened to have days off. Kisame said it was a scheduling error but Sasuke looked doubtful. Naruto ended up leaving early because Kushina was ordering takeout, and Sasuke left not long after that to help Mikoto garden. Even though that was just an excuse to sneak tomatoes when she wasn’t looking.

Being the most emotionally intelligent Uchiha, Itachi sat down across from Sakura at the dining room table, while Kisame busied himself in the kitchen.

“What’s up, kid? You barely touched your food.”

“Am I under a genjutsu? I think I might be under a genjutsu?!” Sakura blurted out, worrying her bottom lip. Itachi looked back owlishly at her.

“Uhm. What…. What makes you say that?”

“Well, um, I can’t stop thinking about my friend Ino, and it’s affecting my training and it’s getting really annoying, but it won’t stop! I don’t know what’s wrong with me!” Tears threatened the corners of her eyes. Saying it out loud made her feel ridiculous.

“That doesn’t sound like a kind of genjutsu to me. You’ve tried breaking it?”

“Yeah... a couple times. It didn’t work.”

“And why do you think it’s focused on your friend Ino?”

“I dunno? She’s like, my best friend, I guess?” Sakura chewed on her fingernail, a bad habit she hadn’t broken yet. “Do you think she could be targeted too?”

“Sakura. I don’t think this is a genjutsu.” Itachi smiled softly. “You should try being around Ino more, maybe that will help.”

“But every time I’m around her I act like a big idiot!” Itachi chuckled quietly at that.

Sakura pouted, jutting out her bottom lip. It was easy to forget that she was only 14, but never so apparent as now.

“Just think about my advice, okay kid? Obviously, you acting like a ‘big idiot’ doesn’t bother her, because she keeps on wanting to be in your company. Take a deep breath.” Sakura inhaled and exhaled, frazzled nerves calming a bit. Itachi ruffled her hair – well, what hair there was and smiled. Which did look weird on an Uchiha, but that was beside the point.

“You’ll be fine, Sakura.”

\--

Ino and Sakura sat on Ino’s bed, who was concentrating hard on painting Sakura’s toenails. They had decided on a peachy orange, just for something different.

Ino huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face. “Hey, Saku, would you mind tying my hair back for me? It’s in my way.”

Sakura nodded, swiftly pulling Ino’s bangs out of her face. And oh god was her hair just as super soft as she thought it was going to be. This was a disaster.

“You okay?” Sakura blinked, and Ino was staring at her. Whoops.

“Sorry, yeah! Just spaced out for a second!” Ino hummed in response, going back to her work of trying to paint Sakura’s pinky toe. She worked in silence, but it was comfortable, despite the fact that Sakura had a million thoughts racing through her head.

“You sure you’re alright?” Ino asked, concern furrowing her brow. “You have a weird look on your face. Do you have a fever or something?” Ino reached to place her palm on Sakura’s forehead. Even her hands were soft. What the hell.

“I like you a lot, Ino!” Sakura blurted. Damn her mouth. Ino froze, blinking slowly, thinking.

“I like you a lot too, Sakura.”

“But I mean… more than in a friend way. I think. I’m still sort of figuring things out-“ Ino cut her off.

“That’s what I meant, dummy. And that’s okay, I don’t mind. We can figure things out together?”

Sakura was sure she had the dumbest look on her face.

“Wait, if you liked me too, why didn’t you do anything about it!”

Ino scoffed, smiling. “I didn’t know if you felt the same way. Also, I’m a lady, duh! A lady never makes the first move!”

Sakura shoved Ino lightly. “Then what does that make me!?”

“My girlfriend?”

Inner Sakura fainted.

“Yeah okay… yeah.” Sakura grinned and found herself unable to stop. “But we can still take things slow, right?”

“Of course! Now give me your other foot, I need to paint that one.” Sakura obliged, feeling like her face was going to split apart.

She was going to have to send Itachi a nice fruit basket.

**Author's Note:**

> i took a break writing this to shave my head so that's about where im at in life. leave a kudos or a comment if you enjoyed!
> 
> Omake:  
> Kisame: so uh sakura is definitely a lesbian, right  
> Itachi: yeah but i cant just tell her that, that's weird  
> Kisame: then what are you gonna do?  
> Itachi: idk. have Sasuke give her a tegan and sara cd?


End file.
